A True Stark
by TrueManevolanGirl4899
Summary: Leo is born. Leo is hidden. From her brother. From making friends. From being normal. The (much) younger sister of Tony Stark is discovered.
1. Another Stark

**Hey! My first Avengers story ever! Hope you like it, and for those of you reading Broken Within, I apologize that I've not updated that story in a week, but I've got family in town and that can become pretty hectic. You have my solemn oath that I will update that story next.**

Leoraena Violet Nataliya Summer Alissa Gracelynne Regina, Queen of Manevola and Empress of the Imperial Islands.

This is my (nearly) full title.

In almost all documents though, including this one, my last name is omitted.

You see, I am a Stark.

I am the full-blood child of Howard and Maria Stark. My biological brother is Anthony (Tony) Stark. But he does not know this. The information that our parents had a second child (me) was kept from him for one reason and one reason alone: my safety.

I am a Stark; I am Leo Stark.

I was born very as a weak infant, not strong at all. The night I was born, the doctors didn't think I would make it through the night. But I surprised them all and was trying to breathe on my own within my first three hours of life.

During my first year of life, I nearly died at least four times. Luckily, with my father a leading scientist of America, I was never truly in any severe danger of actually dying, yet my mother still worried. At the age of five, when most children are starting Kindergarten, I was in my father's labs, discussing the properties of obsidian, or the best way to stop cancer from getting to the lymph nodes and spreading.

Everything was done for me. I never had to lift a finger. I never made my own meals, never cleaned my own room or did my own laundry, and was never, ever left alone by myself. My mother was terrified that something would happen to me.

Yet this did not please me. So, every morning since my fourth birthday, I would train myself; train myself physically and mentally, and in secret.

My father was very confused indeed when my asthma seemed to be clearing up all by itself. I got stronger, and by the age of six could do the splits on both legs, climb a rope ladder with just my arms, and run five kilometers in about an hour. I did all this in my room, and the only who knew was my "nursemaid", Ms. Li, whom I bribed to play blind while I did this. But she always stood outside my door or sat in a chair with her back turned in my room, just in case something ever went wrong. But nothing ever did. I had a very, _very_ large bedroom.

I was at the age of six that my parents died. This broke me. My parents were my life, and now they were gone. So to hide the pain of being alone, I trained even harder. I worked hard at school and ended up skipping from 3rd grade to 6th grade, then to 9th grade, and from there I went to being senior in high school. I graduated college when I was thirteen, and fourteen is where I am now.

This is my life on Earth. Let us now take a look at my history in Manevola.

I was seven years old, when, shortly after my parent's death, I discovered a gateway to another world. I was thrilled.

Though my father was a scientist, and I knew as much about science already as a straight-A high school student would, I had always been fascinated by the thought of fairies vs. faeries and dragons and elves and pretty much anything supernatural and the possibility of that stuff actually existing. My dad discouraged this line of thought as much as he could, but my mom encouraged my imagination. She said that it was good for me to have an active mind. Dad argued that my mind was more active than any top graduate of any great college, but it should be active in sciences, not fairy tales. I liked my imagination the way it was.

Anyways, this gateway led to the universe of Manevola. I spent a few years there and became very close to their elderly queen. She had no children and, when she died, she left the throne to me. I became Queen of Manevola when I was nine years old.

I was adored across my kingdom, still am. When I'm there I feel whole, and surrounded by friends. My closest friends reside there:

Lucietta Stuart is second in command to only me. She and her twin, Cecelia Stuart, who is third in command, are in direct lineage of Mary Stuart, or better known as Mary, Queen of Scots.

After Luci and Cece, there is Adelaide Lexford, Silliciya Carrington, Bethalina Lee, and Catherine Royal.

This is my true family. Yet, when I am on Earth, I can't help but think about what it might be like to meet my older brother and actually know him. I wonder if he would like me, and if we could possibly be a family.

This is my life in Manevola. Now I will show you my life as a spy.

My parents left me under the watchful eye of Director Fury, until the letter they had entrusted to Tony was delivered. Though it still hasn't been, and I doubt it ever will be. Fury gave the letter to Pepper, Tony's secretary, to give to him when she deems him responsible enough to "look after" me. So far, this obviously hasn't happened yet. Fury gives me missions, but only the ones that he absolutely has no choice but to send me. I'm valuable to him, and not just because of my brains and my genetic mutations that my dear father gifted me with. He had no qualms about experimenting on his own daughter, as long as he could justify it with, "For the good of the country." I never bought that excuse. I loved my dad, but he was a science geek. He sought fame towards his later years, and apparently the chance to have special powers in his family line and credited to his name was just too tempting to pass up.

Fury's okay, but it's really hard to get away with anything around him. It's awful, though, I must admit, I've gotten quite good at it. He's also always really busy.

Technically, I work with the Avengers. Though, it's really more of an indirect relationship. Like when they went and saved the world. On levels in the spy-world, I'm a few levels above them, and they're pretty high on the scale. They don't even know I exist, which makes sense, because Tony's my brother and he doesn't know that I exist.

During and after they saved the world, I was the one who was their back-up, should they need it, and when they were done, I was the one who went through and made sure there were no stragglers or anything that had survived Loki's defeat. You might think that this is pretty insignificant, but I know better.

For Fury to assign me these missions means that he trusts me more than anyone to take care of anything that could have possibly gone wrong during or after the mission. He trusts me to either eliminate or take hostage any enemies that had survived that would be a threat to us. It makes me feel pretty good , knowing that Fury trusts me that much.

Normally, nobody here on Earth trusts me at all, whereas in Manevola, everybody trusts me completely. Fury made a very good decision, because, just by trusting me, he has gained my loyalty and support. (In _most_ things)

So, there you have it. My three different lives, all of them intertwined and all of them separate.

I suppose I could tell you a little bit about my personality what I look like.

According to mom, I look nothing like Tony, and I guess I agree with her. I have thigh-length, wavy, caramel (with a tint a blond) hair that has blue highlights in it at the moment. I have clear blue eyes, no freckles, I'm pale as death, and could be mistaken with a twig. My mom said it's cool, and that I look willowy, but have you ever tried to wear a bracelet on a wrist that ha inch circumference? The bracelet slips right off, in case you're wondering. Not fun at all. Not to mention that, just because I'm 87 lbs. doesn't mean I'm twelve. I suppose it's also my face, (Mom always said that I looked way younger than I really was) but _still_. I'm _fourteen_, people! Not twelve!

About my personality:

I love the color black. According to Dad, black isn't a color, merely an _absence _of color. Well, I still say it's my favorite color.

Also, I've been told that I'm creepy. I've made lots of people nearly wet themselves by standing behind them in the dark, dressed in black, and waiting for them to turn around and scream. It's pretty fun. You should try it some time.

I like to dance and have been teaching myself for quite a while. I've been taking piano for 10 ½ years, and still have a semi-hard time reading music (unless it's below my level), but one of my special talents is that I can hear a song only once or twice and sit down and play it by ear.

I love to read, swim, read, sleep, read, eat, read, and read. I'm a very fast reader. I read a 328 page book in three hours. **(A/N this is actually a true story.) **I also love writing.

My bed is my darling.(The one I have in Manevola) I have flannel sheets, one winter quilt, one summer quilt, another winter quilt, a fuzzy blanket, and a winter comforter. I have six pillows on my bed, a large stuffed dog, and a large stuffed tiger. I'm always looking for more ways to add to that collection. If you have any suggestions, please tell me. No, really, I'd appreciate it.

Did I also tell you that I speak two languages?

English and Sarcasm.

I would be a **bi**lingual, except for the fact that I also speak French, Spanish, German, Latin, Greek, Italian, Chinese, Hebrew, Arabic, and some others. I enjoy showing off by ordering a burger from a fast food place in six different languages, then pretend to be very exasperated and frustrated when the poor cashier tells me that they don't understand me. It's awesome.

And that is pretty much my life's story. If I bored you at any point, go drown yourself in a lake because I don't care.

Today, I am supposed to meet Fury on the Helicarrier; it is to be my first time meeting the Avengers, and their first time meeting me. Fury promised though that he won't tell Tony about me being his sister. Not just yet, at least.

I arrive at the Helicarrier and climb out of my car. Adelaide is driving, as she is seventeen, and wishes me luck. Adelaide is a very strong girl and the head of all my armies, second to me. (Though we do call her Adda sometimes, or Delay)It's pretty funny the way that you can hand her any weapon and she'd be able to kill you in a millisecond with it, even if it was a weapon she had never seen before. She trains all of our elite classes in Manevola to see if any of them are good enough for the Queen's Army or my personal bodyguard, used only in times of great need on my orders. (All girls in Manevola are great, though, at everything, and could put the U.S.'s Secret Service to shame)

I step onto the bridge as the Hellicarrier takes off. Fury turns to me. The Avengers are seated around the table and turn with surprised looks on their faces to see me. Even Natasha, whom I've nearly met before as an agent of S.H.E.I.L.D., and is amazing at hiding her expressions, looks surprised.

Out of slight curiosity, I glance at Tony's face. I see a flicker of something in his eyes. Then I turn to Fury.

"Good morning, Director Fury. Here is the information that you requested I obtain last week." I hand him a flash drive. "Will there be anything else?"

"Leo, I would like you to meet the Avengers. This is Steve Rogers, Tony Stark," he looks at me, "Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton, Bruce Banner, and Thor is out somewhere else at the moment."

"No need for introductions, Patches, I know all of their names."

"Do they know yours?"

I smile at the Avengers, "I'm Leo and it's nice to meet you. I look forward to perhaps working _with_ you instead of _after_ you from now on."

Natasha frowns slightly. "What are you talking about?"

My smile widens. "Fury hasn't told you then. No matter. It's not important right now."

Fury glares at me with his eye. "Leo, I need you to get some information from an enemy computer system for me. Every other agent that has tried hasn't been able to hack the system." he picks up a lap top from the table behind him and holds out to me. I take it and sit down in the empty seat at the table with the Avengers. I hear them start talking as I open the laptop, but I do not hear them. I am in my own little world as I start typing furiously.

Within seconds I've hacked the mainframe, and thirty seconds after that, I'm where Fury needs me to be. I slide it over to him and he hands it to Maria Hill, who gives me a small smile as she takes the laptop and leaves the room, most likely to a computer lab where they'll analyze the information that I've pulled up. No doubt they'll know it was me who did it. They always say that I leave the cleanest trail they've ever come across and wouldn't know that it had been hacked if they didn't already know.

I stand to leave. Steve also stands when he notices.

"It was nice meeting you, Ma'am."

"The pleasure's mine, Captain." I nod to the rest of them and wave to Fury on the way out. "Same time next week, Patches. My place. See ya."

I enter the hanger where Catherine already waits for me in one of our Manevolan jets. I hop in and nod to Catherine as she starts the jet.

"How'd it go, Your Highness?" She grins.

"Awesome. I met my brother (kinda), annoyed Patches, and hacked an enemy computer system. Over all, pretty well."

"Well, I'm glad to hear that, Leo. Luci's waiting for you to get back. She wants go drakon riding today."

I smile widely at this. I love drakon riding so much; I could do it all day. Sometimes I actually do.

"Great, and then later we need to have a meeting. There are a couple issues we need to discuss…

_One week later:_

I realize that I may have left some questions unanswered. Namely one in particular: Why was I kept hidden and why was I in danger in the first place?

The answer is my father.

If you ever become as famous as my father or brother, you will learn very quickly that not everybody loves you and that you are bound to have some enemies; enemies that realize that the best way to harm you is to harm your children. My father did not realize the true danger his children would ever be in until after Tony was born and announced to the world as Howard Stark's son and heir. Yeah, not such a good idea. Multiple attempts were made to kidnap Tony when he was young, a secret that was kept within the family. My father vowed that if he ever had another child, he would keep that child hidden until he was absolutely certain that that child would be in no danger. So, when my mother and father had me, much later in life, I was kept hidden.

This is also the reason that I've never met the Avengers before now. Not only did my father have enemies that would be delighted to learn that he had a young daughter, Tony also has enemies and the Avengers themselves have enemies, so introducing me to their world didn't seem like such a good idea, until a few weeks ago, when Thor came to visit S.H.E.I.L.D., telling them that Loki had escaped and was currently on Earth, in hiding. That was when Fury decided that I could meet the Avengers, but my true heritage would be kept in complete secrecy, at least until further notice. I just hope that Tony doesn't get it into his head to hack S.H.E.I.L.D. again. My file barely escaped the last time, and the only reason it did is because Fury has it so well disguised that it passed completely under Tony's glance. This is pretty much the only file in the world that has my full name and true story, where I was, where I am, what I do, what my powers are… That file could, and probably will, be the death of me.

Today Fury is stopping by my place. He told me that he was bringing some of the Avengers. I'm waiting for them to arrive by doing some S.P.S., otherwise known as Strategic Problem Solving. The name, though, doesn't even cover half of what S.P.S. really is and what it does. Catherine, as my main strategist for whenever there is a battle or anything, is the one who mainly supervises and organizes it.

S.P.S. takes up quite a bit of space in my favorite palace in Surusiyal, Manevola. It is a very large group of very large rooms that are bare on the inside. When you step into a room the lights in the room automatically dim and a scan of your body and brain are done. When you speak, the sensors in the room recognize your voice and, using the information from the brain scan it collected and previous information, it recommends what activity to do. Once you select what activity you want to do, a holographic image appears in the room. You can move the pieces to solve puzzles, build cars, make your way through a maze, work on combat, self-defense, or do pretty much anything you want to. The computer that directs the scans and holographic images is called Jade; partly because it's a pretty name, and partly because Jade refuses to answer to anything else. She's very stubborn that way.

I love S.P.S. almost as much as the library and the training room.

Right now I'm immersed in a very difficult maze that is riddled with enemy agents, laser guns, and pretty much anything else Jade wants to throw at me because I told her not to take it easy on me. Luci and Catherine stand outside watching me through the clear windows that line the outer walls of the S.P.S. rooms while I dodge lasers and bodies. I must say, I'm very good at it.

I barely notice when Fury arrives to stand outside. Jade shuts off the program and the lights brighten back up.

"Your Highness, you have some visitors. Director Fury is here with a Mr. Stark and a Mr. Rogers."

"Thanks, Jade," I say while groaning inside. Why does Fury always have to make life difficult for me by having my brother show up at the most inconvenient times? "You can let them in."

The door opens and Fury enters. "Training?"

I roll my eyes, "Trying to. It's very hard, though, when one keeps getting interrupted with microbial problems that have nothing to do with me and my country. Also, I'm wondering how in the world you got these two past Adda and through the gateway," I say, nodding my head at Steve and Tony.

"She let them through, seeing as they were with me and the gateway was no problem at all, seeing as who we have with us." Oh, right. Tony. Because he shares my blood, the gateway would have welcomed him pretty enthusiastically.

Great. Very nice. Manevola just got more contaminated. Not that Manevola was at all contaminated before Tony arrived. I don't mind Steve though.

Steve looks pretty awestruck with Manevola so far and I almost laugh out loud: He hasn't even seen the half of it yet! I turn to him.

"Well, Mr. Rogers, what do you think of my country?"

He looks surprised as I address him directly. "It's very nice."

I smile, "Thank you, Mr. Rogers. I'm so glad you like Manevola. Maybe some time you would like to visit without Old Patches here dragging you to tag along with him. He seems to dim the place a little."

Steve looks like he doesn't know what to say. Tony does though.

"You call him Patches?"

"I always have, Mr. Stark," Okay, this is weird. Calling my brother Mr. Stark. "Ever since I could talk."

He nods and looks around. "You have a pretty nice set up here, almost nicer than my own," he grudgingly admits. "How do you keep it running? Must take a lot of energy." He notes.

"It would," I concede, "If it ran off normal energy. But all energy here in Manevola is acquired from the soil here. It's a very rare type of soil, found only here in Manevola and nowhere else, yet we have it in abundance. The soil is actually made up of diluted electrons and after going through our re-energizing process, the electrons are reawakened and the soil is able to be used as a pure energy source."

Tony looks rather impressed.

Luci and Catherine merely roll their eyes. They both know about my connection to Tony, and they also know how much I enjoy showing off my knowledge about all things Manevolan, simply because I am Queen of Manevola and it just wouldn't look right if the Queen of Manevola did not know everything there is to know about her country.

I sigh. "Fury, what is it? I'm a very busy person and I can't be hanging around here all day waiting for you to spit it out."

Fury glares at me, like he always seems to be. "We have a situation. One of our agents in Brazil has gone missing and we believe that the situation has turned out be much more dangerous then we previously thought. We need you to go and find what happened to the agent and also, what, exactly, is going on over there. Do you accept this mission?"

"Patches, when have I ever turned down a mission?"

"Wait a minute, you send her on missions? She can't be more than twelve!" Tony is indignant.

I am even more so. "I'm fourteen, and for your information, I have been going on missions for S.H.I.E.L.D. since I was nine! I'm their highest agent."

"If you're their highest agent, then why didn't I see a file for you? I've hacked their computers, every agent seems to have a personal file, and trust me, I've looked through all of them, but I've never come across one for you. Why is that?"

At this point I feel like excusing myself to go bang my head on a wall repeatedly. I am so stupid! Why couldn't I just have kept my mouth shut! Fury's glare intensifies, yet he saves me anyway.

"Leo's file is not kept in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s records," He lies. "She has always worked with us completely voluntarily and thus has no other connections with S.H.I.E.L.D." Lie, lie, and lie. Yet I thank Fury silently anyways, even though I can see that Tony doesn't believe him at all and I know that Patches has only saved my life temporarily. Tony will find the stupid file eventually; there is no helping it. But I'm still thankful that I don't have to answer to Tony yet.

"Mhm. We'll see about that." Tony takes out his Stark phone.

I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead, (Repeat)…..

Luci and Catherine must see the desperation on my face, because they step forward to stand beside me, giving Fury, Tony, and poor Steve hostile looks. Fury catches on.

"We'll be going now. You have one week to complete the assignment." All three men leave, one annoyed with me, one absorbed in his Stark phone, and the last one completely baffled. Yes, poor Steve indeed.

I'm close to panicking on the inside. Luci tries to calm me down, promising me some form of sugar if I don't panic. When that doesn't work she takes me to the Drakon Houses. I loosen up when we finally get on the drakons, ready to ride.

Drakons are huge. They're like dragons, except about three times bigger than a real dragon. If you want to know the size of a drakon, take Smaug, the dragon from the Hobbit, Part 2, divide that in half, and then multiply by three. You've got a small scale drakon on your hands by then. That's about the size of Ruby, Luci's drakon.

Silver is the queen drakon of the _river_ (what a group of drakons is called) here in Manevola, and she's also mine. The thing with queen drakons, is that, while normally in the animal kingdom, the alphas are a lot bigger than the rest of the herd/pack/murder/gaggle/pod or whatever you want to call them, in drakon rivers_, _queens are miniscule compared to the rest of their river. Silvermist is slightly bigger than a large horse with a wingspan the length of two commercial jet planes. The big ones you find at national airports.

I love riding her. Her flight gait is so smooth it's unbelievable. I've actually fallen asleep on her a few times while riding. It calms me down so much.

We rise up over the palace wall to glide over the tops of the trees in the forest just beyond the North Wall.

After a few hours of drakon riding we head back to the palace, where I begin to prepare for my mission. Fifteen minutes later, I'm nearly through and ready to head out in a few minutes, when Adelaide tells me that there is transmission coming in from S.H.I.E.L.D.

I enter the Main Direction Room. Patches' face is displayed on the screen. I roll my eyes, then turn to him and give a big, fake grin.

"Yes, Dear Director Fury?" My voice is gooey, sweet, and, just like my welcoming smile, completely fake.

"Stark knows."

At those two words, the smile drops from my face.

"He isn't happy. Come to the Hellicarrier immediately. We're sending another agent to Brazil."

I groan. "Do I hafta?" I play the part of the whiney kid.

"Now."

I glare at him. "You know what, I wasn't planning on coming, but since you asked _so_ nicely, I've changed my mind."

"Leoraena…"

"Alright, I'm coming, I'm coming. No need to pull full names into this." I stalk off, grumbling.

"Before tomorrow night, please, Leo." Fury calls out before he disconnects.

I growl, "Oh, I'll _give_ you 'before tomorrow night' Director Fury. How does one o'clock in the morning sound?"

_Two Hours Later:_

I sit at the table in the bridge with my head in my arms as Tony and Fury argue. I'm very close to sneaking off to my room here on the Hellicarrier and going to sleep. You know, not sleeping for about two weeks isn't seeming very smart to me at the moment. I really need to start actually sleeping during the night.

I try to tune in to the conversation:

"…not responsible?! You accuse me, _Tony Stark_, of being irresponsible?!"

"Yes, Stark, in case you haven't noticed, you are not exactly big brother/guardian type material."

"You say Pepper knows about this?! Who else knew?"

"Only myself, Pepper, your parents, Leo, a few of Leo's close friends, and now you."

I tune back out and follow my own advice. Moving slowly I creep towards the door.

Once outside, I bump into someone behind me. I whirl to around to see Steve looking at me in confusion.

"Miss Leo, why are you here? And who's arguing in there? It's ten o'clock at night."

"Tony and Patches are arguing. Will you please excuse me? I'm exhausted and I really need to get some sleep; sleep that I have not had for about two weeks."

"Of course, miss. D-do you have a room here?"

I nod and walk past, yawning, and nearly asleep on my feet. After walking for a few seconds, I'm reminded of how glad I am that my room is close to the bridge. I stumble onto my bed, which is nearly a duplicate of my bed in Manevola.

Within seconds, I'm asleep.

I'm shaken awake a few minutes later. I open my eyes to see Fury glaring down at me with Tony standing behind him.

"Get up, Leo. You're going to live at Stark Tower for the time being."

"Well I'm not going right now. Patches, I'm exhausted."

"Get up." Is Fury's response.

I drag myself out of bed and nearly collapse. But I don't let them see or know it. I feel dizzy. I walk slowly out of my room with Fury behind Tony. The Hellicarrier has been lowered enough to take a normal jet down. We climb in. An agent is already at the controls.

I'm too tired to feel the thrill of lifting off, like I usually do whenever I fly in/on anything. Once I'm settled in a seat across from Tony I lay my head against the back of the seat and close my eyes.

I feel Tony watching me.

The silence is awkward.

It seems like forever before we touch down not a mile from Stark Tower.

We exit the jet and Tony apparently always has a car waiting for him because he opens the door to a Ferrari that's waiting for him and climbs in the driver's seat. I sit in the passenger seat, next to him.

Again, _awkward._

We pull into Tony's garage at Stark Tower after coming through a whole bunch of security cameras, walls, voice recognition, etcetera, etcetera.

We climb out of the car and I stumble inside. The only one there is Pepper who doesn't look surprised as I come in with Tony. I yawn again.

Pepper looks reproachfully at Tony.

"Tony, how could you drag your poor sister here at nearly midnight?! She looks exhausted!"

The best way to describe the rest of that night was confusion as Pepper swooped in and took me up to a room that had apparently been made ready for me. I didn't have any pajamas to change into, so when Pepper left the room to go and grab me an extra blanket in case I got cold, I climbed right into the bed, not bothering to do anything except run my fingers through my hair a few times and kick off my shoes.

I sink into blissful darkness, not caring when Pepper comes back in to see me in bed, looking like I was fit to be buried, coffin and all.

What confusion there will be tomorrow morning, when I wake up and don't remember where I am.

The subconscious part of me internally groans.

I'm going back to Manevola tomorrow, if it kills me. Away from this craziness.


	2. Dying

**Hey, I'm back! Sorry, for taking so long to get this posted, and this is definitely a shorter chapter, but here I am now! I hope you enjoy it! Please review!**

* * *

_Leo, meaning me, was not having a very good dream so far._

_First there was the fact that I was being faced down by a creepy tall dude with a scepter and horns on his helmet. Second, he wasn't even facing me, but turned away and chanting in a weird language. One that I recognized; the use of this language alone sent off warning bells in my head._

_Being who I was, a Manevolan, I'd studied nearly all of the living languages of the nine realms, and also some dead ones._

_Oh yeah, maybe I forgot to tell you that Manevola, is not a part of any of the existing nine realms, but a completely different one; Manevola is the tenth realm, but more on that later._

_Anyway, the creepy dude turned towards me. I flinched, and his eyes locked onto me._

_"__I've been expecting you."_

_"__Me?"_

_"__Of course. Why do you think you are here?"_

_At this point I decided to take a page out of big bro's book and turn up the sarcasm, "Hm, let's see, you know there really are a number of reasons that I could be here right now, number one being mainly, that this a _dream_, another is that I have a _very_ active imagination, and also-"_

_"__She didn't tell me that you so irritating."_

_"__Excuse me, '_she_'?"_

_"__That aside, there actually is a reason that I've been watching you; you see, apparently I'm supposed to protect you."_

"What?!"

* * *

I sit up quickly in the bed, slowly regaining my breath. You see, when I sleep, I don't really 'sleep' in the proper sense of the word, I, more like, 'doze'. This means I fall into a very light sleep and slow my heartbeat down by a lot, and I do dream, but very rarely, and when I do dream I usually remember every detail.

Which is why it's really, _really_ bothering me that I can't remember a single thing about this dream, except that I now have this really, _really _creepy feeling that someone is watching me.

I shiver and swing my legs over the bed to find that I can't even touch the floor, this bed is so high off the ground. _How in the name of Manevola did my bed get so tall?_

Then the events of yesterday come flooding back to me. I look at the clock. Of course; it's five a.m. Why can't I just have normal sleeping habits? Oh, that's right, because I really _don't_ sleep at all, of course, until it's absolutely necessary for me to rest. That coupled with my strange way of sleeping is enough to mutilate all natural sleeping tendencies in my _mostly_ human body.

I slide down slightly until I feel my toes brush the ground. I slowly step forward, inspecting the room. The closet door is open, and is empty. _Right._ If I'm even planning on staying here for a little while, I'll need clothes; and Luci and Lissa will obviously insist on staying with me if I do.

Though it's still dark out, I quietly tread over to the door and open it.

* * *

Tony Stark sits in his lab trying to find more information on his sister. No wonder he didn't find out about her earlier. Even now that he knows what to search for, only a few documents are coming up, all of them secure documents from his father on her: Leo's birth certificate, stating that she _is _in fact, the real child of Howard and Maria Stark, born April 8, 1999, Leo's health records, which surprisingly, show nothing after June 2000, and some old documents of Howard's with random notes on them.

One in particular though, catches his eye:

* * *

May 20, 2001

Leoraena shows surprising resistance to the illnesses that I have injected her with. Her immune system almost overrides itself ridding the 3 year-old's body of the disease. Maria knows nothing of what I am doing; still believing that Leo is sickly.

The truth? Leo's body is always weak from ridding itself of disease. This child is truly special.

* * *

August 9, 2001

I have stopped testing for the moment. Earlier this afternoon, I tried to inject an antibody into Leo, yet when she saw the syringe, she shouted. Across the room, a glass of water sitting on the counter shattered, but the water did not spill. It retained its shape, floating in mid-air. As I reached my hand out to touch it, Leo sneezed, and the water spilled all over the counter, crashing my computer.

* * *

December 30, 2005

I have just finished running what will likely be one of many series of tests I do on my daughter. The results were not at all satisfactory. My six year old daughter, Leoraena Stark, will not live past her 16th birthday, unless I find a cure for the virus that she has contracted. Nothing that I injected her with, but something much more sinister; something that poisons her blood and is too strong for her immune system to overcome by itself.

I have not been able to test the sample I have on her, for she retains her completely and highly irrational fear of syringes. I do, however, feel that the cure is linked to the new atom that I have recently discovered. If I should die, I will leave the clues for my son, Tony, to follow.

I have left a letter in the hands of Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D., who told me that he would pass it to Tony when the time is right. The letter contains the bulk of my research and test results from Leo and also my Final Last Will and Testament, leaving Tony full custody of Leo. Why I am writing this, I do not know; perhaps it has to do with the fact that I have an ill feeling in my chest. Some sort of paranoia perhaps, that I will not complete my upcoming journey to Russia, and neither will my wife.

* * *

Tony leans back in his chair and rubs his eyes.

A British accented voice come on, "Tony, I thought I should tell you that Miss Leo is up and moving around. She is in the living room currently, and heading towards your lab."

"Thanks, Jarvis. Close documents."

He turns as he hears a knock on the door.

"Jarvis, you can let her in."

The door swings open. Leo steps in, admiring the cars. "Cool workshop."

"…"

"Okay… look, I'm really grateful and all to you for letting me stay here, but I need to get back to Manevola, even if it's just for a visit. If I'm going to stay here then I need to grab a few things and…" Leo trails off. "Why are you staring at me like that?"

"Leo, are you dying?"

* * *

_Leo's P.O.V.**_

"Leo, are you dying?"

I can feel my body tense up. How on Earth-

"Where would you get such an idea?"

"I was reading through a few of dad's notes."

"Great, the old geezer let the cat out of the bag."

"Are you?"

I look at him, studying him. Finally, I make my decision.

"Yes."

"How long do you have?"

I walk forward and rest my hand on a car, feeling the sleek surface of it. "Dad originally thought that I would probably make it to my 16th birthday, but not after. Lissa has done multiple, um, tests, and we've been able to deduce that I'm not going to be having a 15th birthday party. So, in short, I've got about a little over four months to live. Any questions?"

Tony turns his chair around and pulls up a diagram of an atom.

I frown, recognizing it. "Is that dad's atom?"

"I discovered it and used it to replace the palladium in the arc reactor."

"But I thought that-"

"It was _supposed_ to be impossible to synthesize."

"Oh."

"You, by the way, seem awfully familiar with it."

"Lissa and Cat have tried multiple ways of using it, but we've found nothing that works so far."

"Have you actually combined it with samples of your blood?"

I bite my lip, almost too embarrassed to speak. "No, not really."

"… Because the only way to get enough blood is to use a syringe, right?"

"Yeah."

"I noticed that you didn't have any medical records past the age of about 13 months."

"Dad recorded everything he needed to and then when I discovered Manevola and Amaryysa took me under her wing, she had all medical records moved to the healing chambers and computers there, only accessible by herself, me, and the main healer, who, right now, is Lissa. Now, since she's dead, only I and the High Council."

"Those girls, from what I've seen, seem to respect you a lot."

"Well I _am_ queen, so…"

Tony seems uncomfortable for a moment, then changes the subject. "So what exactly is Manevola?"

"Well, you know about Asgard, and Migard, meaning Earth, and the other seven realms, nine in all, right?"

Tony nods his head in confirmation.

"Manevola is the tenth realm, the one remaining undiscovered by the other nine realms in the universe. The eleventh is Surusiyal, but that one's not important."

"So you're telling me that there are actually eleven realms?"

"Yes, but Manevola is special. You see, Manevola gets to pick and choose who she wants as her inhabitants."

"'Her'?"

"We often refer to Manevola as her or she, seeing as it's like she's really alive anyway. On Earth there are many portals, and no other realms have any portals, except Surusiyal of course, and those have been defective for a long time now. A lot of people are Manevolans; however, only girls have ever been Manevolans. We've got nothing against guys, in general at least; it's just completely unheard-of to have a male Manevolan."

"So say I wanted to find a portal, where would I go?"

"Normally, I wouldn't be able to tell you, but first, you've already been there and second, you're related to me. Anyhow, there's a portal pretty close to here, actually at the base of the Empire State Building."

"You said you needed to grab some things?"

"Yeah, and just so you know, Luci and Lissa are going to insist that they come here to stay with me. Delay might as well."

"Good thing this place is large."

"They'll only need one bedroom between the three of them, and one of them will probably be with me."

"You ready to go?"

"What?"

"Might as well go now."

"Sure, why not?"


End file.
